Bohrium: the essentials

Bohrium is a synthetic element that is not present in the environment at all. The German discoverers at GSI proposed the name Nielsbohrium (symbol Ns) after Niels Bohr. IUPAC are happy to name an element after Bohr but suggest bohrium (Bh) on the grounds that the first name of a person does not appear in the names of any other element named after a person. This seems to have been accepted by all concerned.

Bohrium: historical information

Bohrium was discovered by Peter Armbruster, Gottfried Münzenber and their co-workers. in 1981 at Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany.. Origin of name: the origin of the name is Niels "Bohr", the Danish physicist..

Scientists from the USSR reported their production of an isotope of bohrium in 1976 and this work was substantiated by German workers later.

Isolation

Isolation: only a few atoms of element 107, bohrium, have ever been made. The first atoms were made through a nuclear reaction involving fusion of an isotope of lead, 209Pb, with one of chromium, 54Cr.

209Pb + 54Cr → 262Bh + 1n

Isolation of an observable quantity of bohrium has never been achieved, and may well never be. This is because bohrium decays very rapidly through the emission of α-particles.

More recently, other isotopes have been made at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland.

249Bk + 22Ne → 266Bh + 51n

249Bk + 22Ne → 267Bh + 41n

In this work, it appears the scientists concerned feel bohrium forms the oxychloride BhClO3.